Warming the Heart
by Nightshade's sydneylover150
Summary: Jim has always thought of Valentine's Day as being Singles' Awareness Day… That was before Spock re-entered his life. Sequel to "Cold As Stone."


Title: Warming the Heart

Author: Nightshade sydneylover150

Beta: Pending (aka she is working on it, but couldn't make the deadline)…

Summary: Jim has always thought of Valentine's Day as being Singles' Awareness Day… That was before Spock re-entered his life

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, Jim Kirk, Spock, Chris Pine, and/or Zachary Quinto.

Rating: T for Jim's language

Warnings: Ultra fluffy

J/S/J/S

Jim had always hated Valentine's Day. Okay, it hadn't been too bad when he was in grade school. Back then the school made each student in the class bring in Valentines for everyone. Those Valentine's Day parties had cake, cookies, stickers, and tons of other goodies. However the day began to suck when became a pre-teen and everyone started pairing off. Jim hadn't seen the point after that. Valentine's Day was no longer about having fun, passing out cheap valentines' cards, eating goodies, and getting out of class; it was all about relationships. Jim Kirk didn't do relationships. He didn't trust the idea of being in a relationship. Therefore he hated Valentine's Day.

This year was different. Spock was back in his life. Jim still wasn't exactly sure what his relationship with Spock was, but he knew it was special. He knew that Spock used a lot of fancy and, so far, untranslatable Vulcan words to describe their relationship.

Despite his confusion, Jim knew that he wanted, for the first time, to celebrate Valentine's Day. The question is, how in the hell do you do Valentine's Day when your… partner… friend… brother-in-arms is a Vulcan?

S/J/S/J

Spock was beginning to become concerned about his 14-year-old Th'y'la. Every time Spock walked into a room, Jim would hid the notebook he was writing in underneath his arm (Spock also was concerned about Jim's instance of continuing to use an antiqued form of documentation, but at this point in time the use of actual paper was a lesser concern).

Jim had begun to act suspicious approximately 1.357 weeks earlier when the Terran calendar switched from January to February. Spock did not understand what had caused his Th'y'la to act more illogical than normal. Their relationship was proceeding at a slow but steady pace since Spock found his Th'y'la lying in the snow 2.73 days before the human holiday of Christmas. Spock hoped within the next year that Jim would agree to bond with the older male, as it was logical for Th'y'la. Jim was young though and Spock believed it would be best to slowly introduce the concept of having a serious, life-long monogamous to Jim.

Spock still was struggling with the knowledge that Sarek, along with five Vulcan elders had conspired to keep Jim and Spock a part in order to purify the House of Surak. Now a 17-year-old Spock was working and attending senior year undergraduate classes at Iowa State University while he waited for his Th'y'la to complete high school and his post secondary classes. Jim had told him over the last two months that he had struggled with academics since Spock and he had been separated. Spock hypothesized that the elders and his father had altered Jim's ability to process information in order to keep the bonded pair from ever having the opportunity to meet again. Jim on the other hand believed he just had issues paying attention to material he deemed to be boring and unchallenging. Spock could not imagine that this was even possible as Jim of course would have been allowed to work at a faster pace than the other students if needed. When Spock had told his partner this, Jim had started laughing. Spock still could not understand why his Th'y'la had found this truism to be "hilarious."

Despite the difference in hypotheses, Jim had begun completing his school and homework to the best of his ability since Spock re-entered into the human's life 1.54 months prior. It was for this reason that Spock was concerned. He did not want his human to fall behind again. Spock wanted to get both of them enrolled in Starfleet before Jim's mother returned to Earth in December 2247.

However Spock found his human's current behavior to illogical. Jim was acting in a manner which could indicate that Spock's Th'y'la was once again under the influence of others' will. Spock decided he must act in order to ensure his and his Jim's future together.

J/S/J/S

Jim had been compiling a list of potential ways he could celebrate Valentine's Day with Spock without the Vulcan believing that Jim was behaving illogically. When he finally narrowed down what he wanted to do, Jim began to work hard to earn the money to help him buy Spock's first Valentine's Day present. Jim had worked hard within the last two weeks to obtain the money to purchase the tickets. He had shoveled long farm "drive ways," delivered papers, and bussed tables at a local restaurant to get enough to secure two tickets for an astrophysics seminar Spock had wanted to attend, two tickets for round trip shuttle fare, and 4 nights' stay in a cheap hotel room in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jim was pretty sure Spock believed that the younger male had gone insane over the last two weeks, but finally everything was paid off. Plus all of Jim's assignments were complete for the next four days so Spock could not criticize the human for not doing his work.

Jim decided he wanted to take his friend to the Grand Rapid's astrophysics seminar because Spock was "a big fan" (Jim's words, not Spock's) of the presenter, Dr. Stephan Hawking Planter. Jim had seen his friend look at a pamphlet advertising the seminar weeks prior to Valentine's Day, but noticed his friend had not signed up for it. When Jim had asked why his friend had decided not to attend the seminar, the Vulcan had stated that he believed being away from Jim for a prolonged period of time would prevent him from adequately being able to protect this friend. Which brought Jim to the next part of his plan, Jim planned to attend the seminar with Spock. The seminar was being held during Jim's "spring break" from his post secondary classes. Despite Spock's belief that Jim was not interested in astrophysics or any other science, Jim had been taking astrophysics classes on the sly for years. Just because something isn't in his permanent high school or school record did not mean he hadn't audited the classes. He just had never received credit for the classes.

It wasn't Jim's fault that the Terran public school system still held back students who were bright but bored because they were "defective" (Jim still wanted to hit Mr. Patternson in the face for telling Jim "you'll never amount to much Kirk, face it, you're as dumb as a box of rocks"). Spock however did not understand auditing classes and believed Jim's mental facilities had been damaged by Sarek and his cronies. Then again, it could just be possible that Spock did not understand the concept that human children's schooling is done in groups and at the pace of the majority of the students instead of each person working individually on class work. While Jim had needed some help learning how to spell and do some forms of math, once he finally "got something," he could do it.

Either way, Jim was planning to surprise Spock later tonight with seminar tickets. Now Jim just had to give his friend the present.

S/J/S/J

Spock had decided he would approach Jim tonight after they ate their evening repast. Spock could not allow his Th'y'la to slip behind once more, not when they are only 5 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 45 minutes, and 32 seconds from being officially enrolled in Starfleet Academy. Spock had decided he was going to cook Jim's favorite dish of gorgonzola and spinach rigatoni as Spock had noticed that his Th'y'la was always more inclined to listen to his arguments when he was provided with a meal he felt was decadent.

Spock was just finishing putting the dish together when his Jim rushed into room. The young human male was panting and wheezing as flashed Spock a grin and slapped the Vulcan on his back, before the young man dropped down to the floor and started untying his boots.

"Jim, are you in need of medical facilities at this time? "Spock asked and he could hear how his controls slipped as there was a slight intonation of concern in the Vulcan's voice.

"Yea, I'm fine, Spock. I just raced here from the hover bus stop. Damn it's cold right now! I think we're going to be getting quite a bit of snow within the next few days." Jim replied as he managed to extract himself from one boot and began to tackle the other. Spock could barely keep himself from shivering at his Jim's prediction. Despite his Th'y'la's love for snow, Spock wanted to be as far away from the crystallized water formations as possible.

"Jim, I have made dinner. I would appreciate it if you would join me in this repast."

Jim looked up surprised from where he was pulling off his left boot, "Spock… thank you! You didn't have to do something like this just because it is Valentine's Day! I didn't even think you knew what this day meant to humans!"

"I assure you Jim, I…" Spock started to say, but his Jim continued speaking, almost as if he had not heard Spock's assurance.

"Look, I know this isn't as special as a homemade meal, but I wanted to do this for you. I've been working a lot for this over the last two and half weeks and I really hope you enjoy it." Jim stated in a rush with his face all flushed as he shoved an envelope at Spock.

Spock took the envelope as he pondered what Jim meant about this date being a significant one for human. He had heard of Valentine's Day from his mother. His father had refused to indulge his mother's "antics" as the elder Vulcan had called them, as they were not appropriate for the wife of a Vulcan Ambassador to be engaging in. Spock wondered if his father had been as disrespectful towards his mother's traditions before Spock's birth. The envelope was thin and long. Spock opened it slowly, fully prepared for it to be something that would be overly emotional card, as Spock had witnessed a large number of humans give to others within their "circle."

What he found was something very different. In the envelope was two tickets to Grand Rapids, Michigan's astrophysics seminar with reservations slips for a hotel and roundtrip shuttle passes. For once Spock was speechless as Jim looked at him expectantly.

"Look you don't have to say anything if you don't like them or don't want to go with me to the semi…." Jim started to say before Spock cut him off. With a kiss.

"I do not have the words to express what I want to say. Standard has failed me." Spock said has he drawn back from Jim. "Taluhk nash-veh k'dular."

The End


End file.
